Canada’s gynecologists are set to debate next month the growing demand for “designer genitalia” surgeries that purport to enhance a woman’s self-image and sexual satisfaction.

Female genital surgery has become so popular it is now one of the most Google-searched forms of cosmetic surgery.
“Certainly our members are getting questions about it,” said Dr. Jennifer Blake, CEO of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.

The controversial issue will be discussed at the organization’s 70th annual meeting in Niagara Falls in June during a session titled, “The Ideal of Perfect — Genital Cosmetic Surgery.”

Procedures such as “labiaplasty” and “G-spot augmentation” are being widely promoted by private cosmetic surgery clinics on the Internet as ways to “beautify” female genitalia and give them a more “aesthetically pleasing look.”
It’s a commercialization of the female body Blake finds disturbing and a phenomenon she and others say is being driven by false ideas of what “normal” genitalia should look like.

Part of it is coming from pornography that makes women feel their labia are somehow abnormal or unattractive, Blake said. “And it’s a really vicious circle, because this is one of the operations women who are actually in the pornographic film industry are now expected to have,” she said.

“What bothers me most is that women are being made to feel insecure and unhappy about a perfectly normal, healthy part of their body and will submit themselves to costly surgery when we just don’t know what the long-term impact is going to be,” Blake said.

Some Canadian gynecologists are travelling to the U.S. for training in the surgeries, though Blake said they are “by no means in the mainstream.”

This is one of the operations women who are actually in the pornographic film industry are now expected to have

The procedures involve labiaplasty, where the labia minora, the small inner folds of the vulva, are trimmed and made more symmetrical, as well as laser procedures for “vaginal relaxation syndrome.” Labiaplasty costs about $4,500, and vaginal tightening up to $5,500.

According to recently published guidelines from the Canadian society of gynecologists, no available long-term data exists on the safety and efficacy of the procedures. The doctors’ body also says there is little evidence to support claims the surgeries improve sexual satisfaction or self-image.

Risks can include bleeding, infections and scarring.

The guidelines say the procedures should only be performed if medically warranted, for example, in cases of pelvic prolapse or injuries following childbirth.

Related

Blake worries that young women are seeking procedures that use laser energy in ways that can cause scarring, potentially reducing the flexibility and elasticity of the vagina as the woman grows older.

“As I say to my patients who are struggling with these issues in menopause, it’s the difference between going dancing in a full skirt and dancing in a straight skirt. The straight skirt doesn’t give,” she said.

“What we’re saying at this point to women is, be aware that this is a part of the body that changes in appearance dramatically through your life, you want it to be functionally well for you and there is a wide range of normal.”

Social psychologist Petra Boynton of the University College London says women seek genital surgery for sexual reasons partly because they’ve been led to believe orgasms are vital to sex, “and that if they’re not experiencing earth-moving orgasms on a regular basis there is something wrong with them.

“In short, they’re led to believe their bodies are inadequate, undesirable and malfunctioning but cosmetic genital surgery can change all that.”

Doctors who perform the procedures say little long-term data exists because the procedures are so relatively new.
However, Dr. Martin Jugenburg of The Toronto Cosmetic Surgery Institute, said data from Europe and the U.S. indicates the procedures are safe and do not cause serious complications.

He said his patients tend to be “very happy and very satisfied” with the results.

“You need to be cautious, you need to counsel your patients properly so they’re fully aware of what they’re doing and they need to understand that this is not necessarily a ‘great sex’ surgery,” said Jugenburg. “I explain to all my patients that this not a great sex surgery. This is a cosmetic procedure that changes the appearance and the feelings in the vaginal area,” he said.

I don’t look like that and therefore I’m not as desirable as I could be

Sex is part physical and part emotional, he said. “We only deal with the physical factor.”
In her recent “Spring Talks Sex” blog on the Canadian Women’s Health Network website sexual health educator Lyba Spring raises the “cultural parallels” between female genital cutting, a practice common in developing countries such as sub-Saharan Africa and Sudan, and “female genital modification” in the developed world.

“When a girl is undergoing a procedure to modify her genitals in one country, it’s as motivated by a societal view of culture as is our view when a woman opts for a medical procedure to change her genitals in order to conform to a certain view of what is considered to be beautiful,” Spring said in an interview.

“It’s really scandalous that women think that because the pornographic images of what women’s genitals are supposed to look like seem to be so enticing for their partners, they may say, ‘I don’t look like that and therefore I’m not as desirable as I could be.’”skirkey@postmedia.com